Sunday, August 30, 2020

September Books

Hey Guys!

It's been awhile since i've shared what books we are reading, so i thought today i would share we are are reading in September.

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Samuel (10th Grade)

The Maze Runner

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Dasean (7th Grade)

Code of Silence

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Karina (4th Grade)

The Never Girls Collection - Book 1

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Cruz (1st Grade) and Lincoln (Preschool)

Blueberries For Sal

The Runaway Bunny

Caps for Sale

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Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

If you Give a Dog a Donut

Make Way for Ducklings

Rechenka's Egg

An Egg is Quiet

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Veronica (Me)

The Wives

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Read Aloud

Dinosaurs Before Dark

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Those are all the books we are reading in September. What are you reading?

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*Stock photo provided by Unsplash. This post may contain affiliate links*

Thursday, August 27, 2020

Homeschool Extra Classes

Hey Guys!

A few weeks ago i shared our curriculum choices for this school year, but there are a few extra classes we are doing this year that i didn't share in that post. So today i thought i would share those extra classes.

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First up, twice a week we are doing geography. We are using Road Trip USA by Confesssions of a Homeschooler. We have used this curriculum before, during our very first year of homeschooling, however my kids don't remember it.

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We are also doing literature twice a week, and for that i decided to go with Passport to Adventures by The Waldock Way.

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We do art daily, and for that we are using a combination of Draw, Write, Now books and The Good and The Beautiful's Creative Arts  & Crafts.

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For Bible, we have been using Write the Word for kids by Cultivate What Matters.

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Those are all the extra classes we are doing this year. If you have a curriculum you love for: Bible, art, literature, or geography i'd love to hear about it.

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*Stock photo provided by Unsplash. This post may contain affiliate links.*


Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Chickens Update

Hey Guys!

I'm not sure if you remember, i did a house/life update back in 2018, where i shared our chicken coop my parents built for us and i shared a picture of my favorite chicken Hazel. Since then i haven't shared anything regarding the chickens, so i thought now would be a good time to give a chicken update.

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We first got chickens back in June 2018. We ordered 10 female Ameraucana chicks. When i picked up our order, there were 12 chicks inside the box. *Apparently if you order 10, they send you 2 extra just in case some of them don't make it during shipping.* All 12 chicks survived shipping.

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They started growing really fast, and it was so much fun to watch them grow.

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My parents built an amazing coop for them, and they were all doing really well. With the exception of Hazel, who was born with a crooked beak which caused her to have trouble eating & drinking.


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Hazel instantly became my favorite chicken. She was always so happy to see me. She would run up to me and want me to hold her. So, when she passed away in October of 2018 i was devastated.

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Right now, we have 6 of the original 12 remaining. We lost the other 5 chickens due to the weather & our dog Bear.

The 6 that remain, lay beautiful blue/green/pink eggs every single day. We are very happy with our girls.

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In March of 2020, we bought 8 meat chicks in hopes of filling our freezer during these crazy times (covid 19). We lost 1 chick a few days after bringing them home. So we were down to 7. We decided butchering chickens isn't for us, so we were just going to keep them and let them die naturally. Right now, we only have 2 meat birds remaining. It's true what they say, they do die easily from heart attacks & broken legs.


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In April of 2020, we also decided to add more egg laying chicks to our family. We ordered 20 chicks, and they all arrived safe and sound. Although, we did lose 1 a few days after they arrived. They are doing great, and they just started to lay eggs.

So, if you are doing the math, we currently have 27 chickens!!

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Raising chicks has been so much fun. My 4 year old especially loves our chickens.

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That's it for my chicken update. I hope you all enjoyed hearing about our chickens. Until next time, take care!

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Monday, August 17, 2020

1st Trimester Pregnancy Update

Hi Guys!

In case you didn't already know, i'm pregnant! I'm currently 14 weeks pregnant with our 6th baby.

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Since, i'm now in my 2nd trimester i thought i would give a little recap of how the 1st trimester went.

I found out i was pregnant on June 3rd, much to my surprise.

On July 6th i had my first doctor appointment & ultrasound. During my ultrasound they discovered i have a subchorionic hematoma. Which basically means i have a blood clot near the baby. My doctor said because of this, my chances for having a miscarriage were pretty high. We were able to hear the heartbeat at that appointment, so i was feeling better about it all.

At my next appointment, on August 3rd, we were still able to hear the baby's heartbeat and i had the screening test for down syndrome. We also were able to find out the gender during this screening test.

As far as symptoms go, i've been pretty lucky this time around. I have only had some very mild nausea and that's it. I've also only gained 1 pound during my 1st trimester. It all feels like it is going pretty smoothly.

We are all excited about this new baby and i can't wait to share the gender with you all.

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Thursday, August 13, 2020

Homeschool Curriculum Picks {2020-2021}

Hey Guys!

Today i'm sharing what homeschool curriculum we are using this upcoming school year.


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I'll start with my youngest first.

My youngest is 4 years old and he is going to be in preschool this year. I know you don't really need a curriculum for preschool, and with most of my kids we didn't really do any formal preschool. They just kind of hung out and colored, or made messes while we schooled. However, this year i thought it would be fun to try out something different.

Let me just say this, there are sooo many wonderful preschool curriculum options out there, that i couldn't pick just one. That's right, we have 3 different ones we are going to be using.

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The Peaceful Preschool - This will be the main curriculum i use.

A Year of Playing Skillfully - I will take bits and pieces from this curriculum and add it in each month.

Before 5 in a Row - Once again, this one i will just be taking bits and pieces from and add it in as we go.

That's it for my preschooler...

For my 6 year old/1st grader we will be using the following:


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Math - Math-U-See Alpha level

English/Language Arts - The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts level 1

History - The Good and the Beautiful History 2 

Science - various The Good and the Beautiful science units

Reading - All About Reading level 1 and Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

Handwriting - The Good and the Beautiful level 1

Spanish - Flip Flop Spanish

 

For my 9 year old/4th grader we will be using the following:


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Math - Math-U-See Delta level

English/Language Arts - The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts level 4

History - The Good and the Beautiful History 2

Science - various The Good and the Beautiful science units

Reading - All About Reading level 3

Handwriting - The Good and the Beautiful level 2

Vocabulary - Wordly Wise book 4

Spanish - Flip Flop Spanish

 

For my 12 year old/7th grader we will be using the following:

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Math - Teaching Textbooks pre-algebra

English/Language Arts - The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts level 7

History - The Good and the Beautiful History 2

Science - various The Good and the Beautiful science units

Spelling - Spelling Connections 7 

Handwriting - The Good and the Beautiful level 7

Vocabulary - Wordly Wise book 7

Spanish - Flip Flop Spanish

 

For my 15 year old/10th grader we will be using the following:

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Math - Teaching Textbooks geometry 

English/Language Arts - The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts High School 1

History - BJU World History

Science - Apologia Chemistry

Spanish - Rosetta Stone

Vocabulary - Wordly Wise book 10

Personal Finance - Foundations in Personal Finance

P.E. - various activities


So, that's it! That's all the curriculum we are using this year. If you are a fellow homeschooler, i'd love to hear what curriculum you are using this year.

Happy Homeschooling!

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*Stock photo provided by Unsplash. This post may contain affiliate links.*








Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Homeschool Planner 2020-2021

Hey Guys!

Today i'm sharing what homeschool planner i'm using this year.

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First, before i get into what planner i'm using this year, i thought i would share homeschool planners i have used in the past and what my thoughts on them are.

When we first started homeschooling i used Confession of a Homeschooler's planner. Which worked ok for our first year. It's pretty inexpensive ($9.95) because of the fact you have to print it out yourself. That was the part i didn't really like about it. I found out i like already printed/bound planners.


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My next year of homeschooling (and up until 3 years ago) i used, Well Planned Gal's Homeschool planner. It ships to you already printed/bound, it has a lot more features (shopping lists, dinner menus, weekly to do lists, etc.), and is sort of reasonably priced ($34.95) for all that it offers.  What i didn't like about it, is that it is only for up to 4 children.


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I then tried the Bloom Daily Planner, which was very basic and simple compared to Well Planned Gal's planner. What i didn't like about it, was at the time we were doing year round schooling, and this planner started in August. The cost for this planner fell between COAH & Well Planned Gal, at only $19.95.


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This year i'm using, A Simple Plan. I'm really excited to use this planner. I love that it starts in July (for those year round homeschoolers). It wasn't as expensive as Well Planned Gal's, this one was only $22.99. It can be used for up to 6 kids! It feels like it will be a perfect fit for our family.


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If you are homeschooling and have a planner you love, i'd love to hear about it!

Happy Homeschooling!

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*Stock photo from Unsplash. This post may contain affiliate links.*








Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Our New Homeschool Room

Hey Guys!

As some of you might remember, back in 2018 we bought a house out in the country. We definitely down sized with this house, as we moved from a 2800 square feet house into this 1900 square feet house. In doing this move, we lost having a homeschool room.

I tried for 2 years to make dining room table schooling work for us. I know learning can (and does) happen everywhere, and that you don't need a dedicated homeschool room to homeschool. However, not having a designated homeschool room doesn't work for me.

Having some school work/supplies upstairs, some in a closet, some in the kids rooms, some in my room, was becoming super frustrating. With our house being the way it is, there was no way for us to have all the school work/supplies in one area together.

That is why we decided to build a school house...


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We were able to design it exactly how we wanted it.


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It only took us 2 months to build.


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We were able to add in built-in shelving.


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I love that the whole family was able to work on this project together.


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We still need to paint the exterior.


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We start school soon and we all can't wait to do school in our new school house.


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Once the school house is fully organized and decorated i will share a homeschool room tour.

All this week i'm sharing homeschool stuff, so be sure to come back tomorrow for another homeschool post!

Take Care,

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